Kestrel's big red body slammed into the rock wall behind her. She hardly had enough time to dodged the blast of flame aimed at her face.
Stone circled around, waiting for an opening. Stone was a huge Mudwing with burly shoulders and a short, fat neck. Her head held big, curled horns like a ram and her bottom jaw had two large tusk reaching upwards.
Kestrel spat out blood. "Is that all you got, worm?"
"You tell me," Stone said, not letting her guard down. "Aren't you suppose to be the battle teacher? Or are you not smart enough for that? Oh, I know, you're not a true Skywing. No wonder the queen banished you."
Smoke bellowed out of Kestrel's nose in anger. She charged at the Mudwing.
Stone smiled. She sidestepped out of Kestrel's way last minute, causing Kestrel to stumble to turn around. This was her chance. Stone jumped on Kestrel's back and clamped her jaws around Kestrel's neck, her tusk sank through scale.
Kestrel suddenly bucked and threw Stone off.
Stone turned and got back into battle posture. Kestrel held one talon to her bleeding neck, dazed.
The huge Mudwing put her head down, getting ready to charge into Kestrel with her powerful ram-like horns.
"Hay," an ominous voice said, snapping both battling dragon's attention. "Webs says it's time to study."
Nether dragon could see who it was, but they knew it was Phantom. Her voice was smooth an quiet, like blood trickling over rocks or leaves rustling in the breeze.
Stone squinted at the battle cave entrance, but could not see a dragon figure in the shadows. She looked back at Kestrel. "You got lucky this time, Skywing."
Kestrel snorted. "You wish."
With that, Stone casually walked away to the study cave.
"Kestrel is beyond pissed. Now we have to deal with her outburst."
Stone's head snapped to the direction of the voice. It was Phantom again. The Nightwing was so hard to see in the dim caves. She was all black, from snout to talon to tail. Pitch black, every scale and spike on her body. Even the whites of her eyes, which made it impossible to make eyes contact with the other dragon. Everyone who talked to her had to stare into a blank face. Most found this unsettling, but Stone didn't fear the night dragon, or any dragon.
"It's not my fault you're so weak," Said Stone. "Either get stronger or take the beating like a dragon."
They passed a torch and it showed Phantom's body. She was tall, and extremely thin to a disturbing degree. Every single one of her movements was graceful and deliberate. In the light, she looked like the shadow of some curvy skeleton.
In the dimness again, Phantom smiled a huge smile with her extremely white fangs. It looked like teeth where floating in the shadows. "You know very well I can." The teeth disappeared. "I just rather not deal with her bad attitude, it's very annoying. Maku and Ray will be the ones that will have a problem."
"Ha!" Stone barked. "Those sorry excuses for dragons? They disserve everything they get. They're worthless."
"I don't disagree." With that, Phantom rushed away to the study cave with a woosh of air.
Stone very much hated the other dragonets. They where pathetic. Maku was a coward, a worthless waste of space. Ray was self-piteous and frail. And Storm was a fool. He was a good fighter though, but he crushed his potential by having a soft heart. Phantom was the only tolerable dragon. But only tolerable. Stone would be glad to leave these worms to the face-melting Rainwings.
The study cave was illuminated fairly well by torches and a small amount of skylight. The cave needed to be well-lit for reading and writing, unlike the rest of the caves.
Webs was at the front of the room, by the map of Pyrrhia. He was giving some lecture about history to the dragonets seated on the rock floor.
Stone hardly listened, she didn't need to. Stone was an expert on history, being able to recite whole scrolls by memory. She knew the name of every general, and could describe every battle of this war in grate detail.
What the actual war is about was easy to remember.
Nineteen years ago, an army of Rainwings attacked the Sandwing palace, killing Queen Oasis and stealing all the treasure. That left Burn, the eldest and strongest daughter, to take the throne.
And ever since then, the Rainwings have been robbing and terrorizing the kingdoms. Everyone knew the Rainwing's plan. They wanted to take over all of Pyrrhia and enslave the other tribes. And they would have taken over the Sandwings if not for the strong resistance of the citizens and a powerful leader, Queen Burn.
The world was in grave danger. The Rainwings where nasty dragons, using there camouflage to sneak up on enemies and then spiting flesh-melting venom at them. A whole army of camouflaged Rainwings could sneak up unnoticed and spray their venom over everyone. No one would know what was happening until it was to late.
This was it, a fight to the death. Pyrrhia against a tribe of power hungry murderous Rainwings.
That's what the prophesy was for. Marrowseer thought it up seven years ago, and these five dragonets in the study cave were suppose to end this war.
So far, the dragonets looked hopeless.
Ray wasn't even paying attention, he was staring his talons. Maku was trying to pay attention, but his nervous eyes kept glancing up to the skyhole, as if he was afraid a bat would fly through and land on him. Storm, the light orange Skywing, was busy trying to balance a quill on his nose. And Phantom, she was staring at the scroll in front of her. It was impossible to see her facial expressions, but everyone knew she couldn't stand scrolls.
Stone almost snorted in disgust. They where all idiots. Stone, however, had amazing intelligence. She could memorize every scroll, every battle.
Dune popped his head in. "Webs!" he shouted. "Come. Meeting, now."
"Y-yes, coming," Webs said, startled. "Dragonets, just study."
With that, both guardians left the room.
"Ooo, hay, look," said Storm, poking Ray the Sandwing with his tail. Storm had perfectly balanced the quill on the tip of his snout.
Ray smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Cool."
Maku, the Seawing, took a deep breath and blew the quill. It fell to the rock floor. He giggled and covered his face with a wing when Storm gave him a gaze of mock anger.
"Hay," Storm said, smiling. "What was that for?" He gave Maku a friendly shove, but the Seawing stumbled and bumped into Phantom. The pitch-black dragon hissed. Maku baked off, wide-eyed.
"It's okay," Storm said, putting a wing around Maku. "Phantom wont hurt you. She's just extra-super grumpy today. You know, because she had to actually read a scroll."
Phantom shook her head. But since her features where blotted out, Stone couldn't tell if she was amused or annoyed.
Stone was annoyed herself. She was stuck growing up with these foolish idiot dragonets, and worst of all had to figure out how to end a war with them.
"Listen up, you sorry excuse for dragons," Stone spoke, letting her displeasure show. "We should be either studying or figuring out how to end this war, not playing around like a bunch of hatchlings."
Storm spoke, unafraid of Stone unlike Maku and Ray. "Aw, come on. We where just having a little fun for once. Besides, we have a whole nother year before we have to stop the war."
Stone snorted angrily. "More like we only have a year to stop this war. Good thing I have a plan already."
"Oh, I do to," said Storm quickly. "I was thinking we should meet the Rainwing queen and find out why they're attacking and stealing. That way we can solve there problem, then they'll stop."
"Ha!" Phantom laughed her ghostly laugh. "You really think we can talk this out with them? The Rainwings have been terrorizing Pyrrhia for nineteen years. They are greedy and starving for power. What we need to do is assassinate their royal family. With no heirs, the tribe will be in chaos. For a short while. In that time we can unite the tribes to defend ageist future attacks."
"Both those plans are useless," said Stone. "The only way to kill the snake is to burn the whole thing to ash. What we need to do is unite all the tribes and build a super army. Then we can go in and completely wipe out the Rainwings. No dragon, hatchling, or egg will survive. With the Rainwings completely gone, we will never have to worry about retaliation."
Storms eyes where wide. "Kill the hatchlings and eggs? What did they do wrong?! No, we can do this with as little death as possible."
Stone wanted to bash Storm's skull for being so ignorant.
Before anymore arguing could continue, Kestrel walked into the room. "Alright, worms! Shut your useless yaps. Marrowseer is coming tomorrow. I want all of you to be on your best behavior. If not, you'll have to answer to me as well as Marrowseer. Now get to bed, worms!"
Stone wasn't afraid of Marrowseer or Kestrel. She wasn't worried. In fact, she was quite exited. Maybe Marrowseer would see how useless the other dragonets are and kill them. Then Stone would just join the war herself. Maybe become a general. But right now, she was tired, so she went to her cave as Kestrel ordered.